


The well

by JamesJohnEye



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 20:37:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17230820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JamesJohnEye/pseuds/JamesJohnEye
Summary: You wanted someone to go down there, right? Go right ahead.





	The well

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: children find a dark well in the woods. There's a ladder leading down.
> 
> You can find me at Tumblr: jamesjohneye

 

* * *

 

 

There’s a well in the woods. The wooden cover on it has broken into pieces, the brickwork has started to crumble. There’s a ladder going down into it. It disappears in the darkness below. It’s deep. One of the Lowe kids dropped a pebble into it and never heard it land.

Daryl is sitting in the shade of tree and watches how the others circle the well. Mosquitos are trying to eat him alive. It’s just past noon on a summer day. Everyone is bored and tired of the heat. Nobody in the trailer park has an air conditioner and the supermarket nearby kicked them out because nobody was buying anything.

‘Double dare you!’ Paulo shouts at Sammie, who’s the smallest of their group. A year younger than the rest of them and missing teeth because of it. Some days Daryl will interfere. Most days he’s just glad he’s not the one getting it.

Sammie glances at the well. He leans over the edge to look down and someone gives him a half-hearted shove that almost makes him piss his pants. ‘No way,’ he decides. ‘I’m not going down there.’

‘You are when I double dare you!’

‘Cut it out,’ Daryl murmurs. There’s sweat running down his neck. It’s too hot for stupid fights today.

‘Oh, yeah?’ Paulo turns towards him. He’s big for his age, almost eleven now and always towering over everyone.

Daryl closes his eyes and smiles. Well, not everyone…

‘Fuckin’ sick ‘nd tired of this shit. You houndin’ my little brother again, you little shit? Hmm? _Hmm_?’ Merle’s mean and bigger than all of them. His footsteps oddly quiet in the forest, soft enough that only his brother would hear him coming back from taking a piss. The smirk on his face strikes fear in the hearts of their friends.

‘Weren’t hounding nobody,’ Paulo says.

‘Oh, I think you were,’ Merle leers, eyes shining. He’s probably just as bored as they all are. Despite his size, he’s quick enough to grab Paulo’s arm and twist it behind his back to make him howl.

Daryl doesn’t object. He considers it payback for all the bruises the boy gave him. There’s a moment of pity when he sees that Merle is pushing the kid towards the well, but it fades when Paulo tries to bite his brother. He stays quiet.

‘In ya go,’ Merle laughs. He turns Paulo around and then pushes him back again so his heels hit the wall around the well. ‘Stairs right there, climb down or fall down, freak. You wanted someone to go down there, right? Go right ahead.’

‘No, no!’ Paulo shrieks when he has to step back onto the ladder. He’s screaming now, but Merle just keeps pushing him further down. ‘Please, mom! Mom!’

‘Ahw,’ Merle coos as he aims a kick at the boy’s hands to get him to descend. ‘Momma’s boy! Go see what’s down there.’ The older boy sits on the edge of the well and takes his box with matches out. ‘Oh, you can’t see?’ He strikes one off and throws it down the dark well. ‘There you go. Ain’t that nice of old Merle? Gonna fuck with my brother again?’

‘No!’ comes Paulo’s terrified screaming.

‘Didn’t think so.’ Merle throws another match so it hits the younger boy. ‘Oops.’

‘Merle,’ Sammie says, looking worried. ‘Let him up, he wasn’t-‘

‘Want to go down there too?’ Merle asks with a mean glare. ‘That your girlfriend or something?’ he throws another match and leans forward to peer into the darkness. ‘You at the bottom yet, freak?’ He kicks the ladder.

Paulo screams so loudly that it causes Daryl to shiver. ‘Get me out! Get me out! There’s something down here!’

Merle frowns. ‘Stop fucking with me.’

‘Help! _Help_! Mom! There’s something down here, help, _help_!’

Daryl gets up with shaking hands.

Merle gets up too and stumbles away from the well.

‘We have to do something!’ Sammie says with tears in his eyes. He leans over the wall to look down, ‘climb back up! Paulo! Climb up!’

‘I can’t! I can’t, there’s- help! _Oh my god_! Oh My-‘

 

 

Silence.

 

 

Nobody moves for a long time.

 

 

Not until Merle stalks over to Sammie and grabs him by the collar of his shirt. He pushes him up against a tree, breathes on his face, snarls; ‘you tell anyone we were here, I’ll kill your fucking dog, you hear me? I’ll kill your dog and then I’ll drown you in the river, too.’

Sammie nods with tears on his sun-kissed cheeks.

Merle throws him aside and stalks over to Daryl, grabbing him by the arm and tugging him back towards the trailer park.

They don’t say anything.

 

 

‘Son of a bitch just fell in, huh?’ Merle asks as he stretches one leg out and sips at his beer. He’s sitting in front of their trailer with Will, lounging in their camping chairs with a cold beer at the end of long summer day. Family is arriving at one of the other trailers. Crying women and stoic men, children who look lost and confused by it all.

Will smacks his oldest son. ‘The kid died, have some decency.’

‘Just asked if he fell,’ Merle scoffs but leans away, wary of another smack.

‘Pigs say he did,’ Daryl says. He’s sitting in the grass because they don’t have another chair. He looks at his brother.

‘Ain’t what I heard,’ Will mutters. ‘Kid was found with his neck snapped, organs missing. Clawed open by something. Weren’t no animal, mind. What kind of animal just eats the lungs and heart? Tell me that.’

Daryl shrugs. ‘Michael’s dad is a pig. He said they told the family he fell and died. They boarded the well back up.’

‘Nasty place,’ Will murmurs.

Merle glances at his little brother.

Daryl squints back.

‘Yeah,’ Merle says softly. ‘Should have watched where he were going.’

 

 


End file.
